Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Friday warned that the tea party caucus is not happy with the rush to coronate Rep. Kevin McCarthy as majority leader.

“Guys in Congress and gals rushed this thing through,” Steele said on MSNBC. “The base is not happy about it. They wanted to see a conservative — probably someone out of the tea party caucus — at least vie for the position. They clamped it down early, did not give them a chance to ramp it up, and that’s going to come back to bite.”

McCarthy, the House majority whip, has emerged as the front-runner to succeed Rep. Eric Cantor, who lost in his primary in Virginia’s 7th District this week, as majority leader. Texas GOP Reps. Jeb Hensarling and Pete Sessions are no longer in the race to become the No. 2 Republican behind House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), leaving only McCarthy as a declared candidate. The California Republican has the support of Cantor.

Steele on Friday morning said the pairing of Boehner and McCarthy would likely draw the ire of the tea party wing of the Republican Party, many of whom would likely prefer more conservative members in both leadership positions.

“I don’t see it being an easy combination, quite honestly,” Steele said of a potential Boehner-McCarthy leadership team. “Because I think that pressure from that tea party caucus is only getting stronger and both of them are going to be in that vise grip.”

Steele, who served as RNC chairman from 2009-2011, called the California congressman “a nice guy,” but said his promotion would only cause tensions between the tea party and establishment wings of the party to rise.

“This is not going to be an easy transition,” he added. “Everyone’s doing the, ‘Oh yes, party unity’ thing. But guess what, folks? This is not how this is going to play out, because there are a lot of conservatives around the country that are not happy with the process.”